A number of returning veterans will be suiting up once again in their national team colours, but only six athletes have been to every Wheelchair Rugby World Championship and Paralympics since the start of this level of international competition in 1995.

Alan Ash (GBR), Garett Hickling (CAN), Steve Porter & George Hucks (AUS), and the New Zealand trio of Gary McMurray, Sholto Taylor, and Geremy Tinker are the Iron Men of the sport and all of them look to lead their teams back to the medal rounds at this year's World Championships. Here is a complete list of active national team players who have been to at least 5 of these events, either at the (WC) World Championship level or the (PG) Paralympic Games.

# CLASS ATHLETE COUNTRY WC PG
1= 2.5 ASH, Alan GBR 4 3
1= 3.5 HICKLING, Garett CAN 4 3
1= 2.0 McMURRAY, Gary NZL 4 3
1= 2.5 PORTER, Steve AUS 4 3
1= 2.0 TAYLOR, Sholto NZL 4 3
1= 2.0 TINKER, Geremy NZL 4 3
7= 3.0 HUCKS, George AUS 4 2
7= 2.0 MATTSSON, Jan-Owe SWE 4 2
7= 1.0 SHAW, Paul GBR 4 2
10. 2.5 PALMER, Curtis NZL 3 3
11= 3.0 CHAN, Ian CAN 3 2
11= 2.5 COLLINS, Troye GBR 3 2
11= 3.5 DUBBERLEY, Brad AUS 3 2
11= 2.0 JOHNSON, Timothy NZL 3 2
11= 1.0 LYDUCH, Norm USA 3 2
11= 2.0 WILLSIE, David CAN 3 2

The first Paralympic Games for the sport was in 1996, where wheelchair rugby was a demonstration sport in Atlanta. After that, it has been a full medal sport. In Atlanta, at the 1996 Paralympic Games, only six teams were allowed to participate, but since then it has been an eight-team field. Similarly, at the 1995 World Championships in Nottwil, Switzerland, only eight teams competed, and ever since then, in Toronto in 1998, and in Gothenburg, Sweden in 2002, twelve teams earned the rights to compete.

Team Canada landed in Christchurch on July 30th, and are now ready for their first day of training at the staging camp.

Here is a shot of our team, that was taken at the 2006 Canada Cup tournament in Burnaby, BC:



BACK ROW: Donald Royer (CWSA President), Bob Hirschfield (Assistant Manager/Equipment), Mélissa Lortie (Support staff),
David Cox (Sport Psychologist), Nancy Botting (Physiotherapist), Jennifer Cadieux (Team Nurse), Cathy Cadieux (Team Leader), Benoit Labrecque (Head Coach), Nicolas Lapointe (Asst. Equipment Manager), Thomas Zochowski (Sport Technologist)

MIDDLE ROW: Patrice Simard (#15), Marco Dispaltro (Team Manager / High Performance Coordinator), Mike Whitehead (#8), Jared Funk (#13), Trevor Hirschfield (#10), Garett Hickling (#5), Fabien Lavoie (#11), Daniel Paradis (#1), Travis Murao (#12), Adam Frost (Assistant Coach)

FRONT ROW: Martin Larocque (#7), Ian Chan (#6), Gordie Publicover (#3), Say Luangkhamdeng (#2), David Willsie (#14)

MISSING: Stéphan Charbonneau (Equipment Manager), Marc Deschênes (Asst. Equipment Manager), Isabelle Gagnon (Massage Therapist), Don Lane (Technical Support)